


The People Who Take Care of Loki Now +1 Person Who is Late

by madwriter223



Series: A Man Like Many Before [2]
Category: Fantastic Four, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies), X-Men (Movies)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, One Knife
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-10
Updated: 2013-12-10
Packaged: 2018-01-04 06:16:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1077602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madwriter223/pseuds/madwriter223
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A look into the new life of Loki, half a year later.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The People Who Take Care of Loki Now +1 Person Who is Late

**Author's Note:**

> Whoo boy, this took a long time. Mostly because my muse is fickle, but also because apparently I'm a lazy bum whem it comes to finishing things.
> 
> Anyway, this is the last installment of this particular series. I don't forsee any more, but maybe the muse will strike me, I dunno.
> 
> For those of you that still follow this: Bless you and enjoy.

**1) Phil Coulson**  
“Who is this He? Loki? You keep mentioning a He. Who is it?” Coulson asked gently.  
  
“Death is his lover and He brings her gifts.” Loki murmured, squirming in his seat slightly.  
  
“By gifts you mean dead bodies, yes?”  
  
“Feed her till she's satisfied.”  
  
“Dead souls for her to devour, got it.” Coulson scribbled down some notes.. “And would I be correct in assuming this He has an army?”  
  
“Measured footsteps and eager roars.”  
  
“I'll take that as a yes. Do you recall how many soldiers there are in this army? Loki? Loki, look at me.” He said firmly, and green eyes turned to him slowly. “How many soldiers does He have?”  
  
A slow blink. “Look and look and you won't see the end.”  
  
“Would you say the entire Chitauri race?”  
  
“Like insects they swarm and eat out your eyes.”  
  
“I'll write in approximately a trillion, how does that sound?”  
  
“...fingers on a hand.” Loki whispered, voice quivering.  
  
“Five trillion it is, thank you.” He wrote it down. “And what do you think is the possibility that this He will come here?” Silence. “Loki, why are you so certain? What makes you so sure?” More silence, this one more tense. “Loki? Please answer me. This is important.”  
  
“No barren moon you'll be able to hide from us.” Loki said, voice flat and devoid of emotion.  
  
“Ah. That does sound pretty certain.” Coulson tapped his pen against his notebook, then put them aside. “Do you want to go get something to eat?”  
  
Loki stared at him, then grabbed his arm, squeezing tightly.“The Heart of Jotunheim pulses with a song and biting cold.” He said, voice urgent. “It can explode and freeze the world.”  
  
“You've mentioned, but I'm just not comfortable using a weapon that only you can sense and or use.” Coulson patted the pale hand and stood up. How about some ice-cream?”  
  
“...strawberry.” Loki whispered, climbing slowly to his feet and shuffling to the kitchen. He felt really tired today.

 

 **2) Professor Xavier and Maria Hill**  
Professor Xavier sighed tiredly, and removed his hand from Loki's forehead, ending their connection. Loki murmured something, shifting in his sleep, but Xavier sent a soothing wave of comfort directly to his subconscious. The Aesir settled, curling up onto his side, still sleeping deeply. The sessions always went best when Loki's conscious mind didn't interfere or fight Xavier's efforts.  
  
The Professor wheeled himself to the door, opening them with a thought. Agent Hill stood up from her seat and walked over to him, peering into the room. “Did Loki behave?”  
  
“The session went well, no need to worry.”  
  
“No adverse reaction to the sedative?”  
  
“You ask each time and each time it is fine. He's not allergic to it and so far he hasn't gained an immunity. All is well.”  
  
Hill exhaled through her nose loudly. “I want to talk about that. For almost half a year you've been having these sessions with him. Three times a week, for an hour and a half. I know Director Fury and Agent Coulson don't question your methods, but like I said, it's been almost six months. Don't you think there should be some progress to be seen?”  
  
Xavier blinked at her. “I understand this is about the incident in the cafeteria last week?”  
  
Hill narrowed her eyes at him. “Did you just-”  
  
“Read your thoughts? No, Agent Coulson keeps me well informed.” He smiled in a placating manner. “What you must understand, Agent Hill, is that the damage to Loki's mind is extensive. Putting it back together will take a tremendous effort and much time.”  
  
Hill didn't look too convinced, looking suspiciously from him to Loki.  
  
Xavier searched for an apt metaphor. “Loki's mind is... like a jigsaw puzzle. Bits and pieces of it are strewn all around, with only parts in their right places. During my sessions I basically try to put that jigsaw back together. Problem is, immortal beings have large minds to hold all their memories and knowledge. So the Loki jigsaw has around 8 million pieces. Maybe more, maybe less. And due to the trauma he underwent, about half of the pieces are damaged – some chewed by a metaphorical toddler, others burnt, even more with scratches and stains and ripped parts. It is extremely difficult to put it all back together. I don't exactly have a box with a complete picture on it for reference.” He chuckled slightly, but she didn't smile back, staring at the sleeping Aesir with narrowed eyes.  
  
Xavier send a pulse of calm into her mind. “From what Agent Coulson says, Loki is making progress. He is less prone to panic attacks and manages fairly well in a crowd. Unfortunately, recovery from a mental trauma is not lineal. There will be good days. There will be bad days. There will also be extremely bad days. There is no helping that. It is all a part of the healing process. And that takes a long time. Especially for a mind this big.”  
  
Hill pursed her lips and nodded tightly. “Your jet is ready to take you back to the Institute.” she said curtly, stepping to the side to let him pass.  
  
Xavier smiled mildly. “See you on Wednesday then.”

 

 **3) Clint Barton and Pepper Potts**  
Pepper was walking through the den, looking through some of the newest stock data, when she heard it. She stopped, turning to look at the only occupant of the room. “What's that scraping sound?”  
  
Clint waved his hand dismissively, changing the channel on the giant TV. “That's just Loki.”  
  
Pepper frowned and looked around again. She finally spotted Loki sitting in front of the cupboard in the corner. He was curled up slightly with his back to the room, forehead resting on the wood. “Loki's making a scraping sound.” She repeated, cocking her head in confusion. “Is he scratching at himself?”  
  
“Nah, he's slitting his throat.” Clint changed the channel again.  
  
Pepper stared at him, face paling. “He's WHAT?!”  
  
“With a blunt knife, don't worry.” Clint said, finally looking at her. “And he's not really slitting, he's just dragging it across his neck over and over.”  
  
“And you're letting him?” She demanded, wanting to march over there and take the knife from the Asgardian. But she wasn't sure how he could react, and she still clearly remembered his last 'incident'.  
  
“It calms him down. A calm crazy-off-his-ass Loki is my kind of Loki.” Clint pointed out, matter of fact.  
  
She murmured, looking worriedly at him. “It can't be healthy.”  
  
“I'm not really an expert on that.” He said, shrugging.  
  
Pepper thought for a moment, then tried one more time. “You do know that if he really tried he could hurt himself even with a blunt knife?” And with super strength.  
  
Clint blinked at her, then sighed. “Fine.” He stood up and walked over to the Aesir, crouching down next to him. “Hey, Loki! You wanna put the knife down? You've been at it for an hour.”  
  
“A righteous warrior must slay the fearsome monster.” Loki muttered, voice breathy and shaking.  
  
“You're not righteous, man.” Clint pointed out with a crooked grin.  
  
Loki paused, then turned to face the blond. “True.”  
  
Pepper sighed in relief when the knife cluttered to the floor and Loki got up, climbing slowly to his feet. His neck was red and the skin raw, but it was already healing over. Healing magic comes in handy, sometimes.  
  
“Come here, I'll put a movie on.” Clint tugged on Loki's arm, guiding him to the couch. “Wanna see _Tangled_ again?”  
  
“Stolen relict hidden from sight.” Loki said softly, plopping down on the sofa.  
  
“ _Tangled_ it is then.” Clint sat down next to him and grabbed the remote.  
  
Pepper watched them both for a moment, biting her lower lip, and went back to her documents. She never knew how to act during a bad day.

 

 **4) Steve Rogers and Nick Fury**  
When Fury arrived, the entire scene was cordoned off by a mix of SHIELD Agents and the ZOO staff. The only one near the habitat in question was Steve Rogers, pacing back and forth in front of the fence, worry practically dripping from his pores.  
  
Fury marched right up to him and crossed his arms. “Well?”  
  
“Director, I can explain.” the Captain assured him after a brief salute.  
  
“Oh, good, I'm quivering with anticipation.” he said, tone dry like the Sahara desert.  
  
Rogers blinked. “You are?”  
  
Fury stared at him, waiting.  
  
“It's just... you don't normally want an explanation for... situations like this.”  
  
“If you mean PR nightmares, like shutting down the New York Zoo, no, I don't. But this time, I'm willing to make an exception. So talk.”  
  
“Yes, sir.” Rogers nodded, then swallowed. “Today was such a beautiful day, so I decided that taking a long walk would be an excellent idea. We eventually wandered here and well...”  
  
“Oh, don't stop there. You're just getting to the good part.” Fury said, voice low and impatient.  
  
“I took my eyes off him for only a moment to help a lost child find her mother. He's never wandered off before, he's always stuck close to me when outside, I swear I did not think he was a flight risk, Sir.”  
  
“And yet here we are.” Fury said, looking into the habitat behind them. “Did you come up with any reason as to why he's goddamn cuddling with three full grown tigers?”  
  
Rogers almost slumped tiredly, only his training keeping his back straight. “I believe he wanted to pet them, Sir.”  
  
“Pet the tigers. What is this, a goddamn cartoon?” Fury grumbled under his breath, then turned to face the habitat. In the middle, on a few large sun-warmed boulders were the tigers. Loki lay amongst them, pressed snugly against the belly of what looked like the largest tiger on the planet. And the goddamn beast was licking at his hair, grooming him as if Loki was one of her kits. A smaller tiger reclined right next to the pair, a massive head lying atop the god's bony hip. The third tiger sat a little away, golden eyes staring in curiosity at the agents.  
  
“Why haven't you just tranq-ed the animals yet?”  
  
“The Zoo manager said they had their annual check-up yesterday, under full sedation for staff safety. The caretaker thinks that tranqing them again would be harmful to their health.”  
  
Fury gritted his teeth.  
  
“I was told they were endangered, sir.”  
  
“Captain, you will be on the endangered list if you don't find a way to remove Loki immediately out of there before a news helicopter _just_ happens to fly by.”  
  
“Sir, I've tried everything. I called his name, I asked him to come out, I told him to come out, I tried bribing him with snacks, I promised things. I even tried to just go get him myself, but the male keeps attacking me. I'm now considering luring him out with some of his favorite foods.”  
  
Fury curled his lip at Steve. “Have you tried this?” He asked drily, then turned towards the habitat again. “LOKI! SAY BYE TO THE TIGERS AND GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE RIGHT NOW! WE'RE LEAVING!”  
  
And, will surprises never cease, it god damned worked. Loki stood up, stretched with an enormous yawn. He then hugged each tiger tightly around the neck, nuzzling at their thick fur. The animal still staring at them didn't bat an eye, the smaller one honest to God purred and nuzzled back, and the big-ass one only let Loki leave after she'd licked every inch of his face.  
  
Then it was a simple matter of Loki walking to the edge of the rock and jumping over the goddamn fence. Practically in once fucking leap. Then he stood in front of Fury and smiled slightly.  
“Mighty beasts that are royals of the wild.” Loki proclaimed, pointing at the tigers. “Warm power under soft fur, thrumming with life.”  
  
“Yeah, yeah. Warm kitty, soft kitty. Get in the van.”  
  
Loki blinked at him. “Steve said chocolate.”  
  
Fury was already walking back to his car. “Take it up with Steve then.” He called over his shoulder, refusing to turn around. He was the Director of SHIELD. He had more important matters to deal with than chocolate for crazy gods. Let the Avengers deal with that.  
  
Eh, at least it was a good day, Loki wise.

 

 **5) Tony Stark and Bruce Banner (and sometimes guests)**  
Today was Tuesday. Tuesdays were science days. Which meant that Loki got invited down to the labs and had to sit still while Bruce and Tony scanned him and discussed the results. Or argued, it depended on which part of him they were scanning.  
  
Today it was Tony's Insta-Ice Theory. Tony and a friend called Reed were arguing, while Bruce was reading through the data they'd collected already. A little to the side, Loki sat on the table, skin blue and bumpy with tribal scars. Loki blinked slowly as he stared at the markings, sucking contentedly at his slushie through a straw.  
  
“I'm sorry, Tony, but I just don't think it's a plausible theory. True, if, IF the temperature drop around his skin was low enough, it could potentially freeze the moisture in the air.”  
  
“See, my theory is sound.”  
  
“But that's just a theory. Even if he could cause a drop that big, he still has no way of controlling how the ice forms. It could pretty much just rain ice-crystals around him.”  
  
“Not if the temperature drop was localized close to his skin. A millimeter or two and the ice should form right on his skin.”  
  
“It would simply encase his limb then, immobilizing it. There is no evidence it could be formed into a certain shape or even not fall apart.”  
  
“Explain Iceman then.”  
  
“That's entirely different.”  
  
“Cause he's a mutant, yeah, but Loki's an alien. Just because there's no trace of an X-gene in him doesn't mean he doesn't have the same or similar abilities with ice production.”  
  
“You make him sound like a factory. I agree that it might be a possibility, but even Loki himself has shown no such abilities during tests. Unless you and Banner forgot to mention something.”  
  
“No, you've seen all the data we have.” Bruce said, flipping through the charts. “The only ability he seems to have connected with the temperature drop and blue skin is inducing frostbite.”  
  
“Blue blue black.” Loki muttered around his straw, kicking his legs slightly.  
  
“Precisely, but that seems more an instinctual defense mechanism than conscious action.”  
  
“Has he shown any control over that?”  
  
“Nope.” Tony rocked on his feet, bringing up the previous test on his computer. “He caused frostbite in any living skin he touched. Even synthetic ones. And a warmed up wallet. Scratch that, any kind of skin that is warm get frostbitten. Frostbited? Frostbote?”  
  
“The point is he doesn't exhibit any kind of control over that. Nor the frostbite issue nor the temperature drop. Which makes me think it might not be a matter of control or ability, but a development problem.”  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“Prepubescent children are still developing cognitive reasoning. Some adolescents still don't have all their adult teeth. Some adults have underdeveloped brain chemistry.”  
  
“So you think Loki's undercooked?”  
  
“He is a member of an alien race we know nothing about. It's entirely plausible that he's still not yet fully mature. Maybe when he's an adult, he'll be able to make your Insta-Ice or even control the automatic frostbite.”  
  
“That does seem like a viable theory, Dr. Banner, but it lacks a single basic fact.”  
  
“Which is?”  
  
“That Loki is not a child or even an adolescent. His physical traits, from bones to tissues intrigue me, but it doesn't change the fact that most of it is fully developed. There are no signs of underdevelopment, not signs of immature tissues or systems. Frankly, the possibility that Loki isn't an adult yet is nil.”  
  
“Well, what if he's from a race of Ice Giants?” Tony asked  
  
“Frost Giants.” Loki murmured, pulling his straw up and down.  
  
Tony grinned at him. “You're right, that's a much cooler name. Get it, cooler?”  
  
“You're a comedy genius.” Bruce said flatly, patting his arm.  
  
“I know. But back to the topic, what if there's a race of Frost Giants that mature past everything we know, cause they're you know, _aliens_ , it's possible, right?”  
  
Reed rolled his eyes. “Yes, Tony. If there's a race of giant beings that spend millennia growing up past adolescence and are capable of creating ice over their skin by their own will to use as weapons that won't shatter upon impact with something, then you are correct.”

“But there is no way of knowing for sure.” Bruce pointed out. “All we have is data on Loki. Unless we ask someone who actually knows, all this is speculation. He might be a child, he might be an adult with development problems, he might even be a genetic mutation. We just don't know.”  
  
Tony stuck out his tongue at them, and Loki accepted a new Slushie from Dummy. He was feeling numb today. He'd think about what he heard today later.  
  
  
 **6) Natasha Romanov**  
She honestly wasn't one to indulge in such frivolities. There was simply too much to do to just sit on her ass and do nothing. There were missions to perform, reports to write, training sessions to complete, marks to seduce, weapons to clean, wound to patch-up, knives to sharpen. Sometimes there weren't enough hours in a day.  
  
Being an Agent of SHIELD was a time consuming occupation, not for the weak and certainly not for the lazy. Still, once in a while, she would go to the Avengers Tower, sit on the couch with a book and wait. Several minutes would pass, perhaps fifteen at most, then Loki would appear.  
She still wasn't sure how he knows she's there, nor how he gets into the room without her noticing. But he does know and he does sneak in. Then he will clamber up the couch, lay down next to her and place his head on her lap.  
  
The first time he'd done this had been after one of the more harrowing missions of her career. She had been exhausted, literally swaying on her feet from a mix of sleep deprivation and pain from her injuries. Clint had talked her into sitting down for a sec while he fixed her some of her favorite tea. She had closed her eyes for barely a moment, then practically jumped out of her skin (which with her translated into sitting upright with a gasp) when Loki laid his head across her thighs. It had been at the beginning, when Loki had still been jumpy and panicky over everything. And Natasha had been much too tired to deal with a panicking magic-user. So she didn't throw him off. She just patted his regrowing hair and waited for Clint to bring her her tea.  
  
Since then, it became a tradition of sorts. Each time she would sit down for a little bit longer, Loki would slip onto the couch like air, unseen and unfelt, and give Natasha a heart attack.  
  
But by now she was more than used to it. When she felt the weight of his head, she would relax and pet his hair, sometimes even for a few hours at a time. She honestly didn't have the time to waste like this. But you'd be surprised how relaxing it was, just to quietly sit with someone and just be.  
  
And maybe she needed that as much as Loki did.  
  
  
 **+1 Person Who is Late**  
Loki stood in front of the living room windows, body practically plastered to the cool glass. The room was in complete darkness, and each time the sky cut by a lightning bolt, Loki stood up onto the tips of his toes, straining to see as far as he could. Over the buildings, over the water, to the place where the lightning hit. He did this during every storm – stood by the windows and craned his neck to see, followed each lightning strike with his gaze, curling his hands into fists with each roll of thunder.  
  
“Loki?” JARVIS said softly, startling the god. “I am currently checking at least one radio transponder on each longitude and latitude. There are no reported sightings of a hammer falling from the sky nor of a tornado of light.”  
  
Loki bit his lip and swallowed thickly.  
  
“Master Stark wanted me to remind you that he promised. You must be patient.”  
  
Loki stared straight at the nearest camera, gaze hard and unyielding. Then he turned back to the windows and continued staring at the black sky.  
  
JARVIS continued monitoring the globe.  
  
  
end


End file.
